Winners Take it All

Context:  While the openness of trade is being promoted all around, free trade is marred by the distorting power of the global capital.

Issues with the free trade:

• Foreign investors threatening the government to pass laws: 

• Investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) clauses of international trade and investment agreements empower them to resort to a secretive tribunal.
• Nearly 150 members of the European and national parliaments have signed a letter saying the ISDS threatens their climate ambitions.

• Threatens the rights of local people: 

• The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of International Property Rights (TRIPS) is used by multinational pharma companies to deny affordable medicines to the world’s poorer people.
• In India, Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) notification 2020 makes it easier for investors to take over lands for projects by debilitating the assessment process.
• The new labour codes passed by Parliament also weakened the rights of workers to be represented by unions.

• New business models are forcing more workers into short term contracts to make it easier for investors to do business.

• The conflict between democracy and capitalism: Democracy runs on the principle of human rights while capitalism runs on the principle of property rights (One dollar gives one vote; a million dollars gives a million.)
• Terms of trade are set by the rich : leading to increased inequalities; for e.g. the terms of trade in India are stacked against small farmers to keep prices low for consumers.

Conclusion: Voices of the poorest people and their associations must be heard more loudly than the opinions of the rich and their lobbies in deciding the terms of trade.